José M. Osorio (Universidad Anáhuac Puebla) has posted AI Token Budgets for Workers: Labor, Tax and Financial Treatment in Mexico on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Some technology companies in the United States have started to give their engineers budgets of AI tokens, and whether those budgets are part of compensation is already under debate. The practice has barely reached Mexico, but Mexican law already contains the rules that would govern it. This paper argues that the legal treatment of a token budget depends mainly on how freely the worker can use the tokens, and proposes a four-level scale. At the first level the tokens can only be used for work; they are a work tool and do not form part of salary. At the second the worker may use them for personal purposes, and they become an in-kind benefit that forms part of salary and taxable income. At the third, a balance that can be spent across several providers resembles a grocery voucher, although the favorable voucher regime probably does not reach it. At the fourth the tokens can be transferred and used as payment, and only then could they fit the definition of virtual asset in the Fintech Law, provided the budget is not denominated in currency. At no level are tokens money. The Constitution requires wages to be paid in legal tender, and the Fintech Law distinguishes virtual assets from it. Tokens can be added to a salary, but cannot replace it.
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